Taxonomy
Epistrophe nitidicollis
Distribution
Species Biology
Preferred environment
Deciduous forest, scrub and macquis.
Adult habitat & habits
Largely arboreal, descending to visit flowers. The few Irish records of this species are mostly from acidophilous oak woodland, and tracks in or along the edge of conifer plantations, both of these situations falling within the known habitat range of the species in continental Europe. But there are also Irish records from wet Salix woodland sites (T. Gittings, pers.comm.). E.nitidicollis occurs in alluvial softwood forest in continental Europe and in the past this may well have been a habitat for the species in Ireland. The identity of specimens from Salix woodland requires to be carefully checked in case the extremely similar E. olgae (Mutin) is present. The range of the latter species is as yet poorly known.
Flight period
May/June (April in southern Europe) and on into July at higher altitudes/ more northerly latitudes. Larva: described and figured by Dusek & Laska (1959), Goeldlin (1974) and Mazánek et al (2001); aphid-feeding. The larval biology is described by Laska & Stary (1980), who found larvae on Euonymus, Malus, Prunus and Sambucus nigra. Mazánek et al (2001) also report finding the larvae on Acer pseudoplatanus, Cerasus avium, Carduus, Rubus idaeus and Spirea. Mazánek et al (2001) include this species in their key to the third stage larvae of European Epistrophe and also figure its puparium.
Flowers visited
White umbellifers; Caltha, Cistus, Euphorbia,Prunus, Ranunculus, Rubus, Taraxacum.
Irish reference specimens
In the collections of NMI
Determination
Doczkal and Schmid (1994) can be used to separate E.nitidicollis from European Epistrophe species other than E. olgae. The keys provided by Haarto and Kerppola (2007a) and Bartsch et al (2009a) can be used for separation of E. nitidicollis from E. olgae (see also under the account for E.olgae). Heads of the male and female of this species are illustrated (to show frons and vertex) in colour by Bartsch et al (2009a). This species is also frequently confused with E. melanostoma (Zett.) (see Speight, 1988), from which it may usually be distinguished by the extent of the microtrichial coverage of the wings. In E. nitidicollis, the 1st.basal cell normally has an area bare of microtrichis at the base, whereas in E. melanostoma the wing microtrichial coverage is complete. However, specimens of E. nitidicollis can occur in which microtrichial coverage is virtually complete. In such specimens the colour of the scutellar hairs is helpful - all, or almost all yellow in E. melanostoma, all, or mostly black in E. nitidicollis. In the male the angle between the eyes is slightly less than 90° in E. nitidicollis, and slightly greater than 90° in E. melanostoma. The male terminalia are figured by Hippa (1968b). The adult insect is illustrated in colour by Kormann (1988), Stubbs and Falk (1983), Torp (1984, 1994) and van der Goot (1986).
Distribution
World distribution(GBIF)
Fennoscandia south to Iberia; from Ireland eastwards through northern, central and southern Europe (Italy, the former Yugoslavia, Bulgaria) into Russia; through Siberia to the Pacific coast (Kamchatka, Sakhalin Is.); in N America from Alaska south to California and S Carolina.
Irish distribution
Added to the Irish list by Speight (1975). Nash (1997) lists the species for Northern Ireland, but the specimen on which the record is based cannot be traced. The great degree of similarity between E. nitidicollis and E. melanostoma (Zetterstedt) could lead to the latter being overlooked, should it occur in Ireland. Speight (1988) forecast that once the distinctions between these two species were clearly presented in literature easily accessible to British entomologists, the presence of E. melanostoma in Great Britain would quickly be confirmed. The first British records of E. melanostoma were published in 1990 (Beuk, 1990), based on specimens collected in 1988 and 1989, from localities in southern England. Whether E. melanostoma has been present in Britain for many years or has established itself there only recently cannot be decided. However, if no specimens of E. melanostoma collected Britain earlier than 1988 come to light, it would be reasonable to conclude that E. melanostoma has only reached Britain recently. In that eventuality it becomes more likely that E. melanostoma would establish itself in Ireland at some point in the future. It is present in Scandinavia and France, but has not been recorded from Britain. In Ireland, E. nitidicollis is behaving like a relict population that has become adapted to some very specific situation in order to survive, now unable (due to loss of genetic variability?) to colonise potentially appropriate, but different, habitat that has become available, since there is now an abundance of conifer plantations scattered round the island but almost no records of E. nitidicollis from them. It is a moot point whether this species should be regarded as under threat in Ireland. Its populations appear to be small, localised, far between and arguably susceptible to loss. So perhaps E. nitidicollis should be included in any national listing of insects requiring protection, simply to err on the side of caution.
Temporal change
Records submitted to Data Centre in 2024
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References
Publications
Speight, M. C. D. (2008) Database of Irish Syrphidae
(Diptera). Irish Wildlife Manuals, No. 36. National Parks and Wildlife Service.
Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Dublin, Ireland.
Speight, M.C.D. (2014) Species accounts of European
Syrphidae (Diptera), 2014. Syrph the Net, the database of European Syrphidae,
vol. 78, 321 pp., Syrph the Net publications, Dublin.